Potentials and feasibility assessment of small scale CHP plants fired by energy crops in Puglia region (Italy)

The proposed work aims to assess the energy crop suitability of Puglia Region (Southern Italy), the techno-economic feasibility of small scale CHP plants fired by energy crops, and the environmental performances of the proposed CHP plants. In the first part of the work, a GIS model is defined and applied to evaluate the land suitability for energy crops in the Puglia region. In the second part, a financial appraisal of small scale CHP plants under Italian legislative framework (feed in tariffs) is proposed; the two case studies of bio-oil fired internal combustion engine (ICE) coupled to vegetable oil mill plant and fed by oil seeds (brassica carinata seeds) and syngas fired engine coupled to a pellet production unit and fed by herbaceous energy crops bales (fibre sorghum) are investigated. In the third part, the energy balance and the CO2 emissions of the whole bioenergy routes are assessed, in order to calculate the costs for the community (in terms of subsidies) to save a tons oil equivalent (TOE) of primary energy and to avoid a tCO(2) in the atmosphere by these small scale routes. The results report a potential in Puglia Region of about 293 and 729 kt y(-1) of brassica carinata seeds and fibre sorghum bales, respectively; the financial appraisal of the proposed chains, under the Italian legislative framework, reports an internal rate of return (IRR) of 38% and 17%, respectively, while the energy balance assessment reports an overall efficiency of the bioenergy routes of 2.72 and 2.95, respectively. (C) 2008 IAgrE. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.